Adaptive HTTP streaming becomes the dominant downloading protocol. In adaptive HTTP streaming a file is partitioned to a large number of file elements (can reach hundreds, thousands and even more file elements). In addition, a certain media stream can be represented by multiple versions that differ from each other by their bit rate, resolution, audio streams or other properties (each version is differed by a different group of properties). Thus, the same media stream can be represented by multiple files, each file may correspond to a certain version of the same media stream and may include a large number of file elements. Accordingly, the amount of metadata required to manage a file is very large.
There is a need to optimize the delivery of media using the HTTP streaming protocol.